Dependable Erection

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Bowling

Hmmmm. I'm a college graduate. And the last time i was in a league, i carried a 170 average.

Do i count as a regular person?

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posted by Barry at 12:06 PM Digg this

22 Comments:

  • This meme (and it's been around for a while) that Obama doesn't resonate with average working/middle-class Americans--but that Hillary Clinton somehow does--is probably the single most baffling thing about this election cycle to me.

    Nothing gives you the common touch like winning Senate seat after living in the White House for eight years after all.

    There might be perfectly good reasons to prefer Ms. Clinton to Mr. Obama (I don't see them myself, but I'm a reasonable enough guy to see how someone might reach a different conclusion)--but the fact that she's "one of us" has got to be the stupidest reason I've ever heard.

    By Blogger Brian, at 12:27 PM  

  • According to Chris Matthews, being white helps Hillary be a regular person.

    By Blogger Barry, at 1:14 PM  

  • Whether or not you "count" as a regular person, I'm pretty sure that no one will ever confuse you with one :-)

    170 avg., huhn? What were your best two games?

    Do you know the Durham blogger Charo? She was taking lessons not long ago, if I recall correctly.

    By Blogger Marsosudiro, at 2:00 PM  

  • Related only because of the Obama mentioned -- an excerpt from this fine, "unedited" piece from the AP wire:

    Obama would consider Gore for major post

    [snip]

    "Gore, who's work on climate change earned him a Nobel Prize, he is popular among Democrats."

    By Blogger Marsosudiro, at 2:02 PM  

  • Barry, seriously: No, you don't count as a regular person. Neither do I, nor (I'm guessing) do most of your commenters.

    No matter which way some of these folks play with the race card -- fold it up, throw it at someone, eat it -- there's still a question out there whether a bunch of US citizens -- yes, people *not* like us blog-readers and blog-writers -- are going to vote for Obama. While I think the left in this country would just about have to have a collective fatal heart attack to lose this election, it's still possible. How possible? Well, finding out who will and won't vote for Obama is part of figuring it out. Personally, I think Obama can do it, but I know a hell of a lot of people -- many of them lifelong Democrats -- who I suspect would and will never vote for him. Or maybe I simply spent way too long in south-eastern North Carolina.

    Maybe I don't watch enough news, and I'd probably have to actually see the interviews in question to make a decision. But from what I read off the link above, I don't think I'd go running around thinking Matthews is a racist. To me, what he seems to be doing is asking the question the left really ought to be asking themselves: Can we (the left) win the next Presidential election with Obama? If they can't, then maybe they shouldn't nominate him. IMO, that's exactly where the left is most likely to shoot itself in the foot.

    I think Brian's comment is spot on, but I wouldn't necessarily spin it as a Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton question. It may be the case that neither resonates with voters. The Democratic party has a history spanning decades (IMO) of nominating people who don't resonate and aren't electable (with the clear exception of Bill Clinton).

    By Blogger Joseph H. Vilas, at 2:30 PM  

  • i broke 250 a couple of times, and i won the side pot (high game for the night) at least once.

    but that was a long time ago.

    By Blogger Barry, at 2:32 PM  

  • i'm not necessarily saying that Tweety is a racist. but i think it's hard to read what he said in any other fashion than that "African-Americans are not regular people."

    Now, i'm as certain as you are that the Democrats (not necessarily the left) can find a way to lose this election. Obama is certainly not a leftist, and he's no more liberal than JFK was back in the day. Unless things change way more than i can imagine them, i doubt we'll have single-payer health care at the end of an Obama presidency, for example. but i'm pretty certain we'll have a United States, which i can't say i'm sure of should John McCain become president.

    I've been saying since 2003 that Vietnam is the wrong metaphor for the Iraq war. Much better to see the Iraq war as the American equivalent of the Soviet Union's adventure in Afghanistan in the 1980s. And we know how well that turned out, for all parties concerned.

    By Blogger Barry, at 2:38 PM  

  • A female friend who worked for a few years as a County Agent in Oklahoma was interviewing applicants for a technician's job. One of them told her he had managed Hispanics, Blacks, women and regular people. She concluded that regular people were only white men. She did not hire him.

    By Blogger MK, at 4:18 PM  

  • Oh, it's Chris Matthews.

    He's an idiot.

    Okay. Next question?

    Can I ask a not-too-unrelated question, in broad terms?

    WHEN do we stop dumbing down everything in this country for all the dumb asses? Many pundits refer to the "regular folks" voters as "down market whites." Holy crap, I think I'd be insulted to be referred to as a "down market white" yet this analysis is carried on with a straight face. The sad thing is, you probably won't hear any objections from said "down market whites". When I listen to how the media depicts "down market whites" you get the meme that these are working class people who don't want to vote for someone smarter than they are, black or white.

    Some days I don't know who scares me more in this country. The politicians or the g-d voters.

    By Blogger Tony, at 12:21 AM  

  • @brian: Nothing gives you the common touch like winning Senate seat after living in the White House for eight years after all.

    And even more baffling to me is Bush's supposed "regular guy" status. Yeah, Joe Schmoe also went to prep school, then Yale, then had their daddy's friends set them up in business repeatedly, all of that.

    By Blogger hovercraft, at 5:15 PM  

  • hovercraft--indeed.

    Very, very few members of the political class count as "normal" however you care to define it.

    At least Obama smokes, and is therefore human.

    By Blogger Brian, at 5:44 PM  

  • smoked, past tense.

    As for Obama being 'a candidate of the left': seriously people, where are you living? Obama is no more left-wing than Gordon Brown is.

    By Blogger DurhamFood, at 7:18 PM  

  • I think I've come up with a phrase for "normals" and the others that won't necessarily offend "normals" or the others, whomever the hell they might be: "middle of the bell curve." Examples: "Joe Schlemiel is smack dab in the middle of the bell curve." "Joe Schlimazel is nowhere near the middle of the bell curve."

    Actually, I'm sure someone will be offended. But I think I might start trying to use the terms until I can find an offendee, and then kill them. ;)

    So: Barry, neither you nor I nor anyone else commenting here is particularly near the middle of the bell curve. And for that matter, neither is Mr. What's-his-face Sportscaster. :)

    By Blogger Joseph H. Vilas, at 11:46 PM  

  • On second thought, perhaps bell curves are not such a good metaphor after all.

    By Blogger Barry, at 4:48 AM  

  • Nah, Obama thinks, without knowing you, that you're "a typical white person" who, like O's grandma, crosses the street to avoid black people.

    By Blogger Locomotive Breath, at 7:19 AM  

  • @df:

    Well, I don't know or care whether Obama is the candidate of the left since I don't consider myself a leftist. (I might consider myself a left-leaning libertarian on my more pro-government days.)

    I just think he's the least awful candidate of the remaining 3 who have a shot...

    By Blogger Brian, at 9:24 AM  

  • What scares me is that 8 years ago, Republicans thought that John McCain wasn't even as good a candidate as George Bush.

    What if they were right?

    By Blogger Barry, at 9:28 AM  

  • Brian: As a libertarian, why exactly do you feel the need to vote for the lesser evil? Surely a good left-libertarian option would be, say, Mike Gravel.

    Or maybe just saying 'fuck it, these people are all unsatisfactory, so I'm not going to participate'?

    By Blogger DurhamFood, at 12:05 PM  

  • Barry: the right thought McCain didn't have as good conservative credentials as GWB, not that he wasn't as good a candidate.

    By Blogger DurhamFood, at 12:05 PM  

  • df: In a word, I don't. Please don't mistake my observations for campaigning.

    More to the point, I think engaging in (ongoing) discussions of policy, etc., with people who are inclined to do the same--and doing so in a civil, constructive manner--is about a million times more important than voting. Regardless of how one self-identifies ideologically.

    By Blogger Brian, at 12:35 PM  

  • Locomotive Breath, with her finger on the pulse of the American people.

    By Blogger Barry, at 2:01 PM  

  • Brian: nice to meet a comrade in arms ;)

    By Blogger DurhamFood, at 3:16 PM  

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